Jesus and Mohammed
Jim Burklo, Sausalito Presbyterian Church
Oct 8, 2006
In the year 610, a merchant named Mohammed left his home in Mecca and went up to a desert mountain called Hira and sat in a cave to meditate. There he experienced the first of a series of revelations given to him by the Angel Gabriel, the same angel who came to Mary, Jesus’ mother, six centuries before. Just as Jesus went to the desert to meditate at the start of his mission, and was visited by angels, Mohammed’s spiritual journey began in the same way.
This was no accident, because Mohammed was familiar with Christianity and with Judaism. However, his knowledge of those faiths came to him third-hand. He heard a jumble of stories from the Bible, alternate versions of these stories, and folk traditions about them that had been filtered through multiple cultures. When Mohammed’s revelations from Gabriel were put down on paper in the form of the Koran, a distinctive version of the Jewish and Christian stories emerged. In the Koran, Jesus is known as Isa, and he is portrayed in a very positive way, as an important prophet of God. And his mother, Mary, or Maryam, also has a place of reverence in the Koran, though the stories about her don’t quite square with the New Testament.
As a Christian who doesn’t accept a lot of orthodox Christian dogmas, I find that the Koran’s understanding of Jesus has much to be said for it! Mohammed, like Jesus, had a very strong sense of the transcendence and oneness of God. Mohammed rejected the doctrine of the trinity, saying that there is but one God. He rejected the idea that God had a son. He saw Jesus as a remarkable prophet, teacher, healer, and bringer of justice. These things make sense to me and I find them to be a refreshingly straightforward depiction of Jesus. Jesus, if he were alive at the time of Mohammed, might have liked these depictions a lot better than the Catholic doctrines about him that had developed by the seventh century!
At the same time, Mohammed had some fanciful ideas about Jesus. He believed that Jesus was never crucified, that the crucifixion was a hoax. Just about the only detail about Jesus that has any supporting evidence in first-century historical accounts outside the Christian tradition is the fact that he was crucified, so it’s an interesting twist that Mohammed denies it. Mohammed also saw Jesus as a sort of angel who would be present at the last judgment of humanity. Jesus, or Isa, is a very big deal in the Koran, and respect for Christianity as a religion that is “al kitab”, or of the book, is deeply embedded in Islam.
Lots of people are aware that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are cousins. The Bible says Abraham had two sons: the first by his wife’s servant, Hagar, named Ishmael, from whom the Arabs claim to be descended, and the second by his wife Sarah, named Isaac, from whom the Jews claim descent, and the Christians claim a special connection. But few Christians are aware of Jesus’ honored place in the Koran, which binds the two religions together powerfully. These deep and ancient connections offer hope in this time of conflict between Islamic and western civilization. The Koran and the Bible bring us together at our roots.
And lest there be any confusion – our God and Allah are one and the same. Some Christians refuse to accept this, saying Allah is a false God. But the Muslims get it that the God of the Jews and the Christians is the same God as Allah is to them. It is more important than ever to honor this fact and lift it up – it matters much to do so if we care about resolving the issues that have led to conflict in the Middle East.
Because even more significant than Jesus’ cameo appearances in the Koran is the mystical tradition that binds the two religions together. Here’s a taste of that connection from the mystical Sufi Muslim poet of the 13th century, Rumi:
JELALUDDIN RUMI (1207-1273)
"What Jesus runs away from"
The son of Mary, Jesus, hurries up a slope
as though a wild animal were chasing him.
Someone following him asks, 'Where are you going? No one is after you.’
Jesus keeps on,saying nothing, across two more fields. 'Are you
the one who says words over a dead person,
so that he wakes up?’ I am. Did you not make
the clay birds fly? Yes. Who then
could possibly cause you to run like this?
Jesus slows his pace.
“I say the Great Name over the deaf and the blind, they are healed. Over a stony mountainside, and it tears its mantle down to the navel. Over non-existence, it comes into existence. But when I speak lovingly for hours, for days, with those who take human warmth and mock it, when I say the Name to them, nothing happens. They remain rock, or turn to sand, where no plants can grow. Other diseases are ways for mercy to enter, but this non-responding breeds violence and coldness toward God. I am fleeing from that. As little by little air steals water, so praise Is dried up and evaporates with foolish people who refuse to change. Like cold stone you sit on, a cynic steals body heat. He doesn't feel the sun.”
Jesus wasn't running from actual people.
He was teaching in a new way.
Rumi, like other mystics of both Islam and Christianity, took a lot of liberties with the Koran’s version of the Jesus story. In this poem he makes reference to Jesus making clay birds to fly. That’s a take-off on Mohammed’s line from the Koran, where he says that Jesus could breathe into clay figures of birds and bring them to life. In this poem, Rumi is saying that you can look at spiritual power from a material perspective, and get wowed with it. You can relate to people like Jesus as miracle workers. I think it is very popular for people to look at religion as a way to get power. Some people join churches to get connected to a community of people who can help them get ahead financially or socially. That’s okay – I have no problem with it. Some people get into spirituality because they want to be able to have the emotional strength to make friends and influence people, or the emotional strength to overcome addictions or bad habits, or the emotional strength to have a positive attitude about life. That’s just fine, too. But there is another deeper level to religion and spirituality, and that is why Jesus is running. He is running to offer us something he can’t just magically wave his hand and make happen. Nor can I do it as your pastor, or other gurus or guides deliver to you, nor can the church hand it to you, either. There’s something more that Jesus can do by miracle or talent. A way of being he can’t just breathe into us to come to life. Something we must actively seek out ourselves, and find the way he found it. He is running so that we will be inspired to run with him – run away from coldness of heart, run toward the warm glowing heart of God him and herself. It’s neat to have the power to make clay birds come to life. Nice to have the power of influence over others and control over one’s own behavior. But there’s more to the spiritual life than gaining power and control. The ultimate quest is to know God directly, to be one with that loving, cosmic reality. Love itself is the quest, and Jesus is running away from all that would rob life of love, and toward all that would unite us with it.
Other forms of mysticism in Islam flowered in the late medieval era in Spain. Moorish Spain was an incredibly cultured place, with relative harmony existing between the Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The Muslims were the ones who kept the light of the Greeks alive during the Dark Ages, and their synthesis of philosophy and science and spirituality was especially rich in Moorish Spain. The influence of mystical Islam on Christianity and Judaism was profound in Spain. Without the influence of the Moors, we would have no Maimonides, the Jewish philosopher, we’d have no Kabbalah, we’d have none of the later mysticism of Catholic Spain, like the intensely spiritual poetry of John of the Cross or the ecstatic prayers of Teresa of Avila. Christian spirituality would have been starved without the influence of Islam.
The word Islam means submission in Arabic. It’s about humility. A month ago our church was visited by six imams from the biggest mosques in Cairo. A long story of how they got here, relating to my days at Stanford. It was a rich conversation and a wonderful sight to see them right here on our altar, asking questions and admiring our sanctuary. I noticed that one of them had marks on his forehead. I thought they were odd places for scars. Then I realized what they were. Devout Muslims often get these calluses on their foreheads from prostrating over and over during the five daily prayers. God is great! - that’s part of the prayer, and it reminds us that we aren’t nearly as great. Humility is at the core of faith and love and spirituality – a place to start, and a goal to aim for. Something to run toward – with Jesus and Mohammed! Amen….